An alligator is a whole lot of tail! Full of muscle and strength, the tail makes up half of an alligator’s total length and is designed for efficient swimming. The muscular tail is the thruster this apex predator uses to to secure prey in its watery habitat.


© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 64432964

The tail is laterally compressed (which means it is taller than it is wider) and is topped with tall crests of epidermal scales. This design means it can efficiently propel itself through water… sometimes quite rapidly! The tail moves in a wide, serpentine, side-to-side swishing and a trail of wake and small whirlpools follows a quickly swimming gator.The frequency of undulations increases the velocity of the alligator.
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The tail is the primary motor and rudder. According to studies, it is the “main propulsive effector of surface-swimming.” In fact, while swimming, the limbs are primarily folded along the alligator’s side and contribute little to the thrust and steering. (Fish, F. E. (1984). "Kinematics of undulatory swimming in the American alligator" (PDF). Copeia. 1984 (4): 839–43.) ​

Viral video shows massive gator devouring duck in Florida water
Brianna Volz, Digital Journalist
Published: November 30, 2020
From https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2020/11/30/viral-video-shows-massive-gator-devouring-duck-in-florida-water/

Florida hunters were out looking for ducks last week and instead ran into some competition when they found a massive alligator not far from their boat. A video posted on Facebook by Cass Couey last week has since gone viral and if you’ve seen it, that should come as no surprise. In it, you see the giant reptile creep up on a duck in a swampy body of water, open its mouth and start chomping away as it devours the bird.

The video, which has more than 963,000 views and 3,000 comments, has been shared more than 13,000 times on Facebook. “Alright you’re fed, now get outta here,” the person recording the video says. It may not have been the first time a gator stole one of the hunters’ prey that day, either. In the background, one of the boaters can be heard saying that was “number two of the day.”